Guerrilla Marketing Techniques for Selling Your Business
If you start the process of selling your business long before you actually want to complete a transaction, you’re almost certain to end up better off. With time on your side you can utilize many of these “guerrilla” techniques, which won’t weigh heavy on your pocket or take up a lot of your time.
Gather information on potential acquirers. Track down as much information as you can when selling your business – this is key. Early on you should identify those companies in your industry that are buying or merging with others. Keep up with how your industry is affected by those mergers. Learn what is working for them and what is not.
Learn about what those buyers are looking for when acquiring others in the industry. This will give you some ideas as to certain criteria that you may need to meet if you are going to sell. For example, if most of the transactions are with larger companies and you are a small player, that may require you to focus on growing your business to the size necessary to be attractive for industry buyers.
Form relationships with industry buyers early on. One surefire way to meet the CEOs of buyer targets is at industry trade shows or through industry associations. Such relationships can prove to be very valuable when you are ready to sell.
Nurture those relationships with potential acquirers. One way of nurturing these types of relationships is by pursuing partnership opportunities with them. Developing any kind of business relationship is a good way for buyers to see the value in acquiring your business. This approach has other advantages as well. Using partnerships to grow your business may allow you to do so without investing the large amounts of cash you would need if you pursued growth on your own. Partnerships may also increase the speed with which your company can grow.
Be ready for unsolicited offers. This is the best advice I can give business owners who are considering exiting their business. If you have relationships with industry buyers, sooner or later they are going to come a-knockin’. You might be surprised to know that most good companies are sold via unsolicited offers and are never put on the market.
You can be ready to take advantage of these windows of opportunity by managing your business as if you are going to sell tomorrow. Knowing the value of your business today is an excellent first step. Having an idea of what price you would need to sell at to accomplish your objectives is also key. If you need a couple of million dollars to retire and the business is currently worth only a million, you have a ways to go before you are ready to spend time and money entertaining unsolicited offers.
On the other hand, if you are ready to sell your business, and you find a buyer that is willing to pay the price you need and do it now, the decision to sell or not to sell becomes a much easier choice. Having buyers come to you rather than you having to find them is one of the best “guerrilla” marketing techniques there is. Learn more about how to strategize your business exit at Exit Plan Pros.
